When the American Revolution broke out, a First Nations woman played a key role in protecting Loyalists and supporting the troops of King George III.

Mary Brant or Gonwatsijayenni, sister of Joseph Brant, was an important Mohawk in western New York. When the war began, she worked hard to feed and protect colonists loyal to the Crown who had fled persecution of the rebels and sought refuge in the forests. She also helped arm Tory, or loyalist militia, as well as regular British forces from her tribe’s stockpiles.

In the heat of the summer of 1777, British forces had besieged Fort Schuyler, located where Rome, N.Y., is today. In early August, American forces tried to break the siege, but Brant sent First Nations runners to warn the British that a column of Americans was marching their way. The warning gave the British the opportunity to organize an ambush, which stopped the American advance. (Fun fact: the first American flag was flown at Fort Schuyler while that battle raged. It was made of strips of white cut from the shirts of American soldiers — also used for the stars — and strips of red cut from the petticoats of their wives. The blue square was cut from Captain Abraham Swartout’s blue coat. Swartout was later reimbursed for his coat.)

Oneida nation warriors, siding with the Americans, took revenge on Brant’s tribe in an attack that left her home village decimated. Brant and her family lost most of their possessions. She moved farther west and helped steel the resolve of the Mohawks who were wavering after the British suffered losses. When a war chief advised seeking peace with the rebel forces, she spoke out, persuading the Mohawks to remain on the British side. One observer said: “One word from her goes farther with them than a thousand from any white Man without Exception who in general must purchase their Interest at a high rate.”

Brant continued her work for the British in the Niagara frontier. British officers praised her efforts, ascribing any successes they had to her organizational and administrative skills and powers of persuasion.

In 1783 she and her family moved to the Kingston, Ont., area at the request of Sir Frederick Haldeman, leader of Crown forces and colonial administrator. Haldeman ordered a proper home be constructed for Brant.

She lived out her life in Kingston, but still travelled about her former stomping grounds. When the Americans offered her a home in her old territory, she turned them down.

She befriended John Graves Simcoe and his wife when they arrived in Upper Canada. When Brant became ill, Lady Simcoe offered her transportation in an official ship. Brant paid this kindness back when Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe fell seriously ill, by making a medicine from the root of sweet flag or acorus calamus. Lady Simcoe wrote in her diary that the governor responded positively to the cure “in a very short time.”

Brant died in April 1796 and rests at St. Paul’s Churchyard in Kingston.

She is described as a devout Anglican who regularly attended service at St. George’s Church in Kingston, and a woman of “high intelligence and remarkable ability who was at ease in two cultures . . . Unquestionably she was one of the most devoted United Empire Loyalists.”

— Tom Villemaire is a writer based in Toronto and the Bruce Peninsula. Tom@Historylab.ca